New Future of Hospitality Award now open for entries
The Beautiful South Tourism Awards have announced an exciting new category, sponsored by NFU Mutual New Forest, Isle of Wight & Bournemouth, to recognise businesses that are recruiting and developing the hospitality stars of the future.
With today marking the start of National Apprenticeship Week (7-13th Feb), it’s an ideal time for businesses to reflect on the exciting development opportunities they offer to their employees. With a broader focus than apprenticeships only, however, the new award category aims to celebrate all initiatives attracting and retaining talent in the hospitality sector. That could include training programmes, career pathways or a focus on experience-building, whether aimed at those just starting out in their career or those looking to retrain.
The award is now open for entries and will close on 25 March 2022. Entry forms can be downloaded here. Tourism and hospitality businesses are invited to apply, and third-party nominations are also welcomed.
Please return completed entry forms by email to awards@beautifulsouthawards.co.uk by 5pm on 25 March 2022. Thank you.
John Heather, Senior Agent at NFU Mutual New Forest, Isle of Wight and Bournemouth, said: “The hospitality industry continues to bear the brunt of the current vacancy crunch, with UK Hospitality estimating there are around 200,000 vacancies across the hospitality sector.
“Despite this, hotels, restaurants, pubs and bars are embracing the opportunity to attract new blood into their sector. There are many businesses, either through their training programmes, apprenticeship schemes or on the job experience, going one step further and provide their teams not only with a job, but with structured training and a clear career pathway. This award looks to celebrate those businesses and the contribution they are making to the future of the hospitality industry.
“The sector offers a diverse range of roles and a wealth of opportunity for people to develop skills and knowledge to become future industry leaders, be that front of house, in the kitchen, housekeeping or accounts and finance. As a major partner to the food and drink sector, we recognise the importance of businesses building a flourishing workforce that is nurtured and developed in-house.
“We are proud to work with the hospitality industry, and have previously published papers on how to encourage, develop and maintain talent in the industry. Recognising the challenges faced in 2021, the industry needs to ensure it can continue to deliver the world class customer experiences that visitors have come to expect. We see this award as a way of recognising the very best businesses in the South East of England and are delighted to be able to showcase both the ingenuity shown and the fantastic programmes that have been put in place.”
Fran Downton, Chief Executive of Tourism South East, said: “We are delighted to present the Beautiful South Awards and to celebrate the many successes of our businesses in what has been another challenging year for the region. We are pleased to be working alongside NFU Mutual, New Forest, Isle of Wight and Bournemouth areas and thank them for their sponsorship and continued support of the tourism and hospitality sector.”
